Sony’s PlayStation division lost close to £5 million in its second financial quarter this year, but still managed a small increase.

The company reported an operating loss of £4.98 million (0.8 billion yen; $8 million) in its second quarter financial statement today.

Sony blamed this loss on its price reduction for PS Vita in Japan as well as the strengthening yen against the dollar.

These losses were offset somewhat with an increase in software unit sales of £990 million (155.7 billion yen; $1.5 billion), and a year-on-year increase of 5.1 per cent, which, again, was attributed to the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates.

Sony’s losses in its second financial quarter, which ended on September 30th, compared to operating income of £14.6 million (2.3 billion yen) in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

The Japanese yen’s high exchange value, compared to the US dollar and euro, and an increase in PS3 software sales helped the hardware maker’s game division to remain “essentially flat”.

Sony added that its operating loss “significantly increased year-on-year primarily due to an increase in research and development expenses” related to the upcoming PlayStation 4.

Sony has been cutting production costs and staff as part of an ongoing plan to return to profitably. Overall, the electronics giant reduced its profit forecast for the entire financial year by 40 per cent.